Becoming numb in the wake of the mounting losses of life at the hand of gun violence is understandable. Still, we must learn how to continue to feel the range of emotions that follow terrifying tragedies. Our sorrow and our rage, our ability to take in the suffering and cultivate compassion, are vital parts of our humanity. We cannot allow the perpetrators of such violence to separate us from the qualities that allow for healing. (Link for a Zoom Thanksgiving morning prayer & reflection gathering is below.)
We must name the harm of a gunman piercing the sanctuary and the lifesaving space that an LBTQ2S+ provides. We mourn the loss of the five lives cut short at Club Q on Saturday night in Colorado Springs: Daniel Aston (he/him), Kelly Loving (she/her), Ashley Paugh (she/her), Derrick Rump (he/him), and Raymond Green Vance (he/him). We pray for 18 who were injured to recover from their physical injuries. We pray for everyone present that evening who will bear the emotional and spiritual scars of surviving gun violence and the removal of another space that represented safety and liberation.
We must feel the depth of sorrow at what is now lost and gone forever, even as we affirm that Daniel, Kelly, Ashley, Derrick, and Raymond’s lives were holy and made significant differences. What is so hard to bear is that deep down, we know that it doesn’t have to be this way. We do not need to have so many people with experiences of surviving gun violence. We can and must organize to remove the capacity of hate to be weaponized with such force. I am thankful for the members in our community, and beyond who organized to get ballot measure 114 passed this fall, and we have more work to do.
Barely able to comprehend the losses that greeted us on Sunday, this morning, we awake once more to the senseless shooting of six people and four injured at a Walmart in Chesapeake, VA. That is the seventh mass shooting over the last seven days if you define that as a shooting involving four or more people injured or dead. (Source: https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting)
As Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I am acutely aware of the grief that will be present at tables with such sudden empty chairs. Let us hold all the families and chosen families that will be at tables impacted by gun violence over the past year. Let us hold all who have had the safety of their chosen sanctuaries pierced by violence for whom the grief and memory may be overwhelming at times this week. We remember what happened at Emmanuel A.M.E. Church in 2015. We remember what happened at Pulse nightclub in 2016. We remember what happened at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018. We remember these and more.
If you need a space to hold your grief alongside your gratitude, I will host a brief pastoral Zoom gathering for prayer and reflection at 9:30 am on Thanksgiving. You are welcome to join me at the link below if that would be a nourishing way to start your day.
Sending love and care to all,
Rev. Alison
Thanksgiving Morning Prayer & Reflection Gathering
Meeting ID: 867 5360 9694
Passcode: 848012